Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fuel battery cells.
Background Art
A polymer electrolyte fuel cell includes a membrane electrode assembly that is the lamination of a catalyst layer and a gas diffusion layer in this order on either face of an electrolyte membrane having ion permeability. This membrane electrode assembly is sandwiched between gas passage layers and between separators to be a fuel battery cell, and a plurality of such fuel battery cells are combined to configure a fuel cell stack. At an anode (negative electrode), fuel gas containing hydrogen is supplied, and protons are generated from the fuel gas through an electrochemical reaction expressed in the following formula (1). The thus generated protons pass through the electrolyte membrane to move to a cathode (positive electrode). At a cathode (positive electrode) on the other side, oxidant gas containing oxygen is supplied, which reacts with protons coming from the anode (negative electrode) to undergo an electrochemical reaction expressed in the following formula (2) to generate water (hereinafter this may be called generated water). Through the electrochemical reactions occurred at the electrolyte membrane-side surfaces of the pair of electrode structures, electric energy is taken from the electrodes.Anode reaction: H2→2H++2e−  (1),andcathode reaction: 2H++2e−+(½)O2→H2O  (2).
In some of such fuel battery cells, a porous body is disposed as a passage forming member between the membrane electrode assembly and the separator so as to define a gas passage through which reactant gas for power generation is allowed to flow along the surface of the gas diffusion layer.
Various techniques have been then proposed for such fuel battery cells. For instance, a fuel battery cell described in the following Patent Document 1 includes a porous body that is disposed so as to stick out into a manifold (through hole) formed in the fuel battery cell.